On Love's Own Terms Read online

  “Four. Our oldest starts preschool this fall, and the youngest has been toddling since Christmas.” She winced and pressed a hand to her swollen side. “Judging from their prenatal activities, these two will be born wearing track shoes.”

  When the waitress stopped again, Bonnie shook her head, refusing a second beer, and Sueanne ordered a glass of water with a twist of lime. Mercifully, someone lowered the volume on the jukebox and the women were able to talk quietly.

  “Life as a northerner sounds hectic,” Sueanne remarked. “It must make Rebel’s Ridge seem awfully dull.”

  “Not really.” The words were out before Bonnie realized it She shrugged. “I’ve met lots of famous people through my catering service, which is fun if their egos aren’t overinflated. And while New York presents incomparable cultural opportunities, the quality of life here is much better—at least in my opinion.”

  “Give me a for instance,” Sueanne prompted.

  “Okay. There’s no feeling of space in New York—no breathing room, so to speak. I have to live in the city because of my business. And when I look out my windows, instead of trees or fields of clover all I see is other buildings.” Bonnie wrinkled her nose. “In a lot of corny ways, I suppose I’m still a country girl at heart.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that.” Sueanne smiled expectantly. “Are you seeing anyone special?”

  “I date.” Bonnie didn’t expand on her answer. If she admitted that no other man she’d met could hold a candle to Luke, she’d sound like the original lovesick fool. She changed the subject before Sueanne could pursue it. “How’s Tom?”

  “Now that he’s adjusted to the idea he’ll be supporting enough people to start his own basketball team, he’s fine.” Her expression pensive, Sueanne tucked an auburn strand of hair behind her ear. “He works for Luke.”

  “So I’ve heard.” Bonnie waved to Darlene, who’d succeeded in luring Dave away from the pool table and onto the dance floor.

  An awkward silence punctuated their conversation. In years past, Bonnie would have poured out her heart to Sueanne. But Sueanne’s marriage to one of Luke’s employees effectively precluded such a personal discussion. It wouldn’t be fair to impose on her friend’s loyalties. If push came to shove, it was only natural that she’d consider her family’s welfare first.

  “Luke is a good man.” Sueanne’s uncanny intuition proved sharper than ever. She leaned forward as far as her protruding abdomen would permit. “And I’m not saying that just because he’s Tom’s boss, either.”

  “I know.” Bonnie sighed distractedly. “This would all be so much easier if he’d only had the decency to grow fat and bald while I was gone.”

  “Now who’s spouting nonsense?” Sueanne chided softly. “I’ll agree Luke is a handsome devil—virtually a walking magnet where women are concerned. But that’s not the reason you fell head-over-heels for him, and I seriously doubt that’s why you’re in such a quandary now.”

  “I am confused,” Bonnie said. “But as desperately as I might need a sounding board, I wouldn’t dream of jeopardizing Tom’s job or throwing a monkey wrench into your marriage.”

  “Poppycock.” Sueanne reached over and grasped Bonnie’s hands between her own. “Remember, we graduated from double-Dutch ice cream into double-A bras together. And in spite of the fact we’ve lost contact the past seven years, I still think of you as my best friend. If you need it, my ear is yours for the bending.”

  “Thanks, Sueanne.” Bonnie glanced around and grinned. “This is hardly the time or place for true confessions. But if things get any more tangled than they already are, you may well find me bawling like a baby on your doorstep.”

  “Anytime.” Sueanne released her hands and reached for her water glass.

  “Say, don’t I know you?” An obviously intoxicated stranger leaned over the table and stared intently at Bonnie.

  “I don’t think so.” She averted her face from the sour-mash odor of his breath. “Maybe you’ve confused me with someone else.”

  “No.” The brash intruder flattened his palms on the tabletop, struggling to stay upright. “I’ve seen you before —I’m sure of it. What’s your name?”

  She shook her head, refusing to oblige him. From the corner of her eye, she saw Sueanne’s shoulders shaking with laughter.

  “Tell me your name.” Weaving precariously, he bent closer.

  Bonnie slid her chair sideways until she ran into the iron railing that separated the bar area from the dance floor. Gritting her teeth, she muttered a vehement, “Damn!”

  “Pam?” He drew back a bit, clearly baffled. “Pam,” he repeated. “Funny, it doesn’t ring a bell.”

  Men! she fumed. First, Luke had left her in suspense by pulling a vanishing act that Houdini would have envied. Now this...

  “C’mon, Pam.” He grabbed her hand. “Let’s dance.”

  Bonnie yanked free, accidentally throwing him off balance. Horrified, she watched as he toppled to the floor and dragged an unoccupied chair from the neighboring table over on top of him. Someone unplugged the jukebox, and the roadhouse fell curiously and ominously silent

  “What the hell—” Luke shouldered his way through the people. Hot on his heels, Tom rushed to where Sueanne sat laughing uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face.

  Luke glanced at Bonnie. Then, apparently satisfied that she was unharmed, he clenched his fists and glared toward the floor.

  Once, twice, the man blinked his bloodshot eyes. Floundering like a fish out of water, he grappled impotently with the heavy metal chair. When Bonnie reached out to help, he cringed.

  A crowd gathered, thirsting for a brawl to chase their beers.

  “Teach him a lesson, Luke,” someone goaded.

  “Knock him into the next county,” another suggested. Bonnie froze, a wave of pity washing through her for the cowering figure on the floor. Enough! she wanted to scream. Yet she waited with everyone else, fear churning inside her.

  Luke looked at her, his expression an unreadable meld of emotions. He tossed the chair aside, and her heart stopped beating. When he offered the fallen man a hand up, she almost wept with relief.

  The rather belligerent crowd dispersed reluctantly. Bonnie wanted to slap some common sense into each and every one of them. Instead she said good-bye to Sueanne and reassured her anxious sister while Luke arranged a ride home for the unfortunate victim of her brush-off.

  “Come on, Calamity Jane.” Luke took her hand in his. “They’re playing our song.”

  “I don’t hear any music.” But she stood and followed him.

  “You will.” He smiled mysteriously.

  “Oh?” she challenged.

  “I gave Darlene a handful of change and told her to punch a certain slow number.” His dark gaze drifted downward. “Something to soothe her sister’s savage breast.”

  Her breath caught in her throat when he focused on the front of her halter top. True to Luke’s prediction, their old song flowed softly from the jukebox. He slipped his arms around her slim waist; she raised her hands to his broad shoulders. Their bodies merged, and she felt the strong drum of his heartbeat against hers as they swayed in smooth, sensuous harmony.

  “Luke,” she whispered hesitantly, “I was jealous that night—insanely so.” Bonnie tipped her head back. Expecting to see triumph in his eyes, she marveled at finding something like pain clouding their depths.

  “If it makes you feel any better, I got dead drunk after you threw your ring in my face. I passed out on her sofa before anything happened, and she took her scissors to my clothes.” He grimaced comically. “I woke up the next morning sicker than sin and had to drive home in my birthday suit.”

  She looked at him, her lips softly parted, and smiled. “You deserved it.”

  “I did,” he agreed softly, nuzzling her ear.

  Their steps grew smaller as they drew closer. Bonnie wrapped her arms tightly around his neck while Luke’s hands caressed her bare back, spreading a slow, hone
yed heat. She whispered his name when his mouth brushed her temple, and they sealed their exquisite awareness of each other with a kiss that didn’t end with the music.

  The sound of shuffling feet and a mild cough broke them apart. Dave’s embarrassment shone bright as a beacon on his freckled face, despite the dim lighting. “I hate to interrupt your, ah, discussion, but Darlene and I are going to a party.”

  Luke traced the angle of Bonnie’s cheek with his forefinger. “Sounds like fun.”

  Dave reached into his jeans pocket, fished out the keys to his van and handed them over. “You can take my wheels whenever you’re ready to leave here. We’ve already got a ride to and from the party.”

  “Fine.” Luke waited until Dave was gone, then dangled the keys in her face. “It’s your decision, babe. Do we hit the road or do we dance till dawn?”

  Bonnie’s heart made up her mind. If it was wrong to need him, she didn’t want to be right. Not tonight She leaned against his chest, almost purring with anticipation. “Frankly, my feet are killing me.”

  Chapter 5

  Their haste to leave the Hickory Tavern bordered on the indecent. While Bonnie grabbed her purse off the table, Luke shoved a twenty-dollar bill at the waitress and told her to keep the change. Before the happily surprised woman finished sputtering her thanks, they were halfway to the door.

  They rode home wrapped in a silken web of silence. A white chocolate moon chased them every mile along the rural backroad.

  Curled up in the captain’s seat on the passenger side, Bonnie captured Luke’s bold male profile on her heart’s canvas. She memorized each detail—the sexy slant of his deep-set eyes, the sharply sculptured nose and full mouth.

  He swung the van into the driveway and parked beside a lush bank of lilacs. A fragile urgency quickened their steps as they walked hand-in-hand toward the wide-planked porch. He opened the front door, then slowed the tempo when he turned and took her in his warm embrace.

  “Welcome home,” he murmured.

  “I’ve missed you,” she admitted.

  Luke tipped her chin and traced the outline of her lips with his thumb. “Show me. Show me what we have together.”

  It was more than an invitation of the flesh. It was a beautiful lie that bound them again, but only for a little while.

  Bonnie raised her hand and touched his mouth, relearning its texture. A soft cry escaped her when his tongue touched the sensitive pads of her fingertips.

  “God, you feel good.” He crushed her to him, molding her legs, her hips, her breasts to the burning length of his body.

  A terrible ache filled her heart. This week was all they had before they went their separate ways. Bonnie closed her eyes to the future, blotting out everything but the present.

  “Let’s go inside.” Luke scooped her into his arms and carried her over the threshold, toward the stairway. “Otherwise, the neighbors across the road will have one hell of a tale to tell tomorrow.”

  “Modesty certainly becomes you,” she teased, wrapping her arms around his neck while he lithely climbed the stairs. “I can remember when you were so anxious to have me, you didn’t care who might know.”

  “You weren’t exactly averse to taking chances, either,” he challenged. “I’ll never forget that Saturday afternoon you dragged me out to the circle—”

  “Dragged you?” She feigned an insulted tone. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack running to keep up with you.”

  “All right,” he conceded, pausing in mid-stride to open the bedroom door. “You suggested we take a walk.” His laughter rumbled deeply. What a beautiful sound!

  “About ten minutes after we got there, your dad started mowing the meadow with that damned tractor—”

  “You jumped back into your jeans so fast, I figured you were snake-bit,” Bonnie recalled with a smile. “There I was, naked as a newborn, my father roaring up the hill on his riding mower—“

  “Talk about a narrow escape,” Luke reminisced wryly. “If he’d caught us, he’d have made bone meal out of me in no time flat.”

  They laughed together, and Bonnie felt a soaring sense of freedom in their total accord. She’d never belonged to any man but Luke; she never would.

  “I don’t think we ever fooled my folks or your mother for a minute, though.” She rumpled his thick hair and thrilled to his flexing muscles as he let her feet slide slowly to the floor. “None of them acted the least bit surprised when we told them we’d eloped.”

  Unbidden tears stung her eyes then, and she lowered her lashes. Despite the circumstances prompting the marriage, her parents had readily, proudly accepted Luke as their son-in-law. Bonnie’s stomach fluttered and her fingers fumbled clumsily as she tried to unfasten the front button at the waistband of her skirt

  “Don’t rush it, darling.” Luke laid a steadying hand over hers, as if he sensed the reason for her sudden show of sadness. “I miss all of them, too. Your folks always treated me like one of their own, even after I gave them good cause not to.”

  He drew her into his arms and hugged her fiercely, shutting out the pain that threatened to intrude on their privacy. The smell of Cape jasmine spiced the breeze wafting through the window screen, and a cricket chirped for its mate in the night. Bonnie rested her tear-stained cheek against his solid chest, absorbing his strength and treasuring the fact that he was temporarily hers.

  “I wanted to kill that creep tonight.” A violent note edged his voice, but she wasn’t afraid. He cupped her face between his callused palms, holding her in a gentle grip. “But when you looked at me, something told me that if I so much as mussed a hair on his sweaty head, I’d wind up the loser.”

  “Welcome to my corner, champ,” she whispered.

  “I never left your corner, Bonnie,” he stated simply.

  She hushed him with a kiss. Talk like that only led to tears. “I’m going to take a bath,” she announced.

  “Can I wash your back?” His hands made mesmerizing circles along her spine.

  Bonnie nodded, hypnotized by his touch.

  Luke grinned wickedly. “Can I wash your front?”

  “Only if I can wash yours,” she answered coyly.

  “Lady, you just struck a deal,” he declared.

  Arm-in-arm, they walked into the connecting bathroom. She turned the faucets on full and poured a heaping capful of scented crystals into the warm, rushing water.

  Shyly, as if it were the first time, Bonnie undressed for him. Dropping her clothes where she stood, she was keenly aware of Luke’s velvety gaze on the skin she bared. Her pulse raced wildly; it mattered so much that she please him. She held her breath and raised her head. The volcanic passion in his eyes dissolved her doubts.

  “My memory didn’t serve me well enough,” he observed huskily. Luke had stripped to the waist, then stopped to watch her disrobe. “If you don’t get into that tub, pronto, you aren’t going to get a bath until sometime tomorrow.”

  She stepped over the porcelain edge, turned off the tap and sank down into the bubbly water. “Last one in has to mop up later.”

  Luke lost, but both of them were winners. He shed his clothes, then climbed in and sat facing her. She knelt between his legs, allowing him any liberty he enjoyed.

  With unhurried hands he lathered her breasts, his circular motion creating an exquisite friction that left her tingling from scalp to toes. Then he reached beneath the bubbles and scooped up clear water to rinse away the soap. When he leaned forward and sipped from the streams he’d made on her skin, she arched reflexively against him. “You taste so good,” he murmured. “You always tasted good—all over.”

  His mouth savored each curve, each swell while he bathed her body with love. Suddenly, Luke lifted her higher as his hands moved lower, touching her tenderly. Bonnie splayed her fingers across his shoulders, seeking support. Caught up in a current she couldn’t fight, she drifted with the wet and wonderful sensations rippling through her. He held her tight until her storm was spent, then helped
her glide down into the water.

  “My turn,” he rasped.

  “My pleasure.”

  Bonnie soaped him slowly, starting with his wide shoulders. She massaged his muscular, hair-matted chest and stroked the sensitive area under his arms before her hands slipped below the waterline.

  His pure animal groan increased both her boldness and the amount of pressure she applied. She wanted him to scale the same dizzying heights where she’d soared earlier, but he would only let her take him half the way.

  “I won’t go without you,” he decreed hoarsely.

  “I’m ready whenever you are,” she whispered.

  In better control than his ragged breathing implied, Luke grasped her wrists and wrapped her arms around his neck. Raising himself up on his knees, he brought her into full contact with his upper torso before he stood and lifted her out of the tub. They toweled each other dry, pausing occasionally for soft kisses or arousing nibbles that left new beads of moisture.

  Luke carried her into the bedroom and laid her gently on the feather mattress. Then, silently as a dream, he came to bed.

  “The light…” Bonnie pointed to the lamp on the dresser.

  “Leave it on,” he urged. “I want to see if you remember me.”

  She did. Her body anticipated his every intimate request and answered with one of its own. His breath spilled warm as wine on her satiny skin as his kisses rained along her delicate collarbone, over the luscious swell of her rib cage, then to lower pulse points sheltered in secret silken places.

  When she cried his name, Luke shifted his weight and moved up, sliding his muscled legs between her thighs. Bonnie felt his heart beating beneath her hands, and every vestige of mistrust melted in the consuming heat of her need. She arched her hips to meet the thrust of his, then bit back a cry of mingled pleasure and pain. He was instantly aware of why she tensed and ecstatic disbelief flared in his lazy-lidded eyes.

  “Bonnie.” He stopped, searching her flushed face.

  “Love me, Luke,” she pleaded softly.